PETER LANCASTER
PROFESSOR EMERITUS AND FACULTY PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, CANADA, AB T2N1N4.
Peter Lancaster graduated with an honours B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Liverpool in 1952. After 5 years in the aircraft industry he took a teaching post at the University of Singapore where his research career began in earnest. He obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Singapore, joined the fledgling University of Calgary in 1962, and retired from teaching in 1994 to focus on his research and other interests. A brief biography can be found in "An interview with Peter Lancaster" by N.J.Higham of the University of Manchester.

He has published many papers in matrix theory and related fields especially as applied to numerical analysis, vibrations, systems theory, and signal processing. He has written and collaborated on several texts and monographs and is presently an editor for three major journals. He has travelled, lectured, and collaborated with individuals around the world, and has organized, or helped to organize, several research conferences. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1984.

He has served as Department Chairman from 1973 to 1977 and devoted time and energy in service to the Canadian mathematical community including two years as President of the

Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS),

two years as Vice-President of

Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society (CAIMS),

and committee tasks on behalf of

the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

He has been a member of the AMS and SIAM (including SIAGLA) for many years. He is an active and founding member of

the International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS)

In the period 1995-2002 he worked in several capacities in setting up the

Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIms)

In March, 2000 he undertook an interesting task in RUSSIA. Click here to learn more about it.

In the year 2000 he was awarded a Humboldt Research Award hosted by Prof. Peter Hagedorn of the Technical University of Darmstadt where he spent several months in the period 2000-2002.

He held a position as Research Fellow at Manchester University, England, for three years from 2004 to 2007.
This fellowship was with the group led by Prof. N. J. Higham, FRS.

He is currently collaborating with a research group based at the University of Nottingham, England, led by Prof. S. D. Garvey.

A pictorial summary of an after-dinner speech given at the ILAS meeting in Amsterdam, 2006, can be found here .

He is a proud parent and grandfather. Edna, his wife for 48 years, and mother of his three daughters, died in 1999.
He is very fortunate to have found a second partner, Diane.

He has supervised about 20 graduate students and several post-doctoral fellows. He counts music, BIRDING, AND MOUNTAINS among his non-mathematical interests.

You can see picture shows of his travels as follows: Singapore '58-'62. Malaya '58-'62. Saving turtles, '61..

Summer 2008.

Diane L. with good friends Richard and Louise Guy.